Australia’s permanent migration programme for 2017-18 will remain at a ceiling of 190,000 places.

This was announced by Department of Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton on budget day.

After recent announcements of abolishing the 457 visas and strengthening the requirement to gain Australia’s citizenship, all eyes were on government to see if the skilled migrant intake would be reduced or would it be maintained.

Debate on migration intake was reignited in late 2016 when Labor and Coalition debated the ‘Australians First’ policy and brought back focus on 457 visa.

Migrant intake was also one of the core election issues in the West Australian state elections.

Even former Prime Minister Tony Abbott opined that reducing migrant intake could solve the problem of housing crisis in Australia.

On April 18th, government abolished the popular 457 visa which allowed businesses in Australia to bring in foreign workers and replaced it with two skill shortage visas, a two-year short term visa with no pathway to permanent residency and a four-year medium term visa with a pathway to permanent residency.

Applicants wishing to come to Australia on work visa from March 2018 will have to nominate an occupation on the occupations list. Along with abolishing the 457 visa, government also removed 200 occupations from the occupations list.

Want to work in Australia? Check 200 occupations removed from the occupations list

On 19th April, Australian government replaced the previous Skilled Occupation List (SOL) with Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) and replaced the Consolidated Sponsored Occupation List (CSOL) with Short-term Skilled Occupation List (STSOL). 200 occupations were removed from the list of eligible skilled occupations on 19 April 2017.

Planning to apply for Australia's permanent residency? Check the new occupations list

Skilled Occupations List has been replaced by the Medium and Long-term Strategic Skills List (MLTSSL) and applicants applying for Skilled Independent Visa (subclass 189) are now required to nominate an occupation from this new list.

6 new requirements to acquire Australian citizenship

The package of reforms will apply to applications received on or after the Government’s announcement on 20 April 2017.